Effort Boosts Museums' Staffs

History And Arts Foundations Join In Heritage Advancement Program

September 11, 2004|By SUSAN KANIA; Special To The Courant

From the Mark Twain House in Hartford to the smaller American Clock and Watch Museum in Bristol, the heritage sites of Greater Hartford will soon have more funds to hire the staff they need to serve more people.

With the Harriet Beecher Stowe house in Hartford as a backdrop, the partners of the Heritage Advancement program announced Fridaythat they will double the total yearly grant funds available to be shared by qualifying heritage sites to $200,000 per year, beginning in 2005. The funding will continue over three years, raising the total to $600,000.

The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, the Greater Hartford Arts Council and the Connecticut Humanities Council teamed up in 2002 to create and fund the new Heritage Advancement program. The funds are designated for hiring new staff, such as curators, educators, exhibition developers and tour guides.

``The barrier that used to exist between the arts and heritage has fallen,'' said Kenneth Kahn, executive director of the Greater Hartford Arts Council. ``We've inaugurated a new era of support and promotion of our combined arts and heritage assets to Hartford and the world.

``Bright, highly educated young people are finding jobs [at the heritage sites] through this program,'' Kahn said, and they are in turn adding new programs to attract visitors.

Scott Wands, the new education coordinator for the Antiquarian & Landmarks Society, who was hired with Heritage Advancement grant money, now creates new programs to help Hartford schoolchildren learn about local history. In the the new Paths to Change program, offered in collaboration with the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, students visit and learn the history behind both the Stowe and the Butler-McCook houses in Hartford. Wands also started a new youth employment program for city teenagers at the Butler-McCook House.

Over the past year, the Antiquarian & Landmarks Society has been able to increase youth attendance at the Butler-McCook House more than fivefold over previous years, with the help of the new grant money, Wands said.

Lisa Johnson, executive director of the Stanley-Whitman House in Farmington, said a new full-time staff member had been hired to work with the museum's volunteers to research and create new historical dramas for visitors.

``We've been able to reach more people in programs that go outside the museum's walls, increasing both the museum's reach and attendance,'' Johnson said.